CHAPTER EIGHT THE AWAKENING I

 The first thing of which Jerome was conscious was a feeling that the covers had slid off. They sometimes did, for he was a trifle too long for his bed and frequently threshed the blankets loose at the foot.

 

Yes, he dully decided¹, without yet definitely opening his eyes at all, that the bed clothes must have slid off onto the floor. He felt chilly², yet not so chilly as to force him to any really energetic effort toward a recovery of the obstreperous³ quilt. He groped futilely⁴ about with one hand, then gave it up. There seemed to be something desperately⁵ wrong with his head. He couldn’t seem to concentrate—no, not even on the quilt.

 

Some time later he again emerged into a realm of hazy⁶ half-consciousness, and began remembering, very sketchily⁷, the crimson⁸ night out of which the present condition had evolved; saw once more the boisterous⁹ gathering¹⁰ at Girardin’s, with himself in the midst; seemed still to feel Lili beaming at him in her wonderful way. Then it came to him that he had finally succumbed¹¹ to prolonged persuasion¹² and had done his little stunt¹³. He blushed unhappily and told himself his dignity was now permanently¹⁴ shattered. How had they managed so to overcome his every better scruple¹⁵? Girardin’s—he had lost all count of the number of glasses—everybody so jolly—Lili—the way she looked at one.... He groaned¹⁶. Then he remembered that by now she must be far to sea. What time was it? What time? It seemed very dusky. He couldn’t hear his alarm clock on the commode. Of course—it hadn’t been wound. He had gone out and made a night of it, and his clock had run down.

 

And then—then he blinked his eyes a little and began, very dully at first, to establish a groping connection with the objects they encountered. The particular object which first arrested his attention was a crack which ran in a perfectly¹⁷ straight line across the ceiling over his head. It puzzled him, rather, because he couldn’t remember any such crack as this in his ceiling. There were plenty of cracks, but all zig-zag. Curious, how he had managed to sleep all these years under a perfectly straight crack without ever seeing it!

 

He groaned again and shut his eyes. These puzzling inconsistencies made his head rock more and more acutely. He tried to turn over and go back to sleep—tried to put all that was baffling out of his wretched head. But the one query¹⁸ that now kept at him with dogged persistence¹⁹ was: how did he ever get to bed without being able to remember a single circumstance connected with the process?

 

His next discovery was that he had gone to bed in his clothes. His hand encountered the clip which still staunchly held his tie in place. The clip proved beyond possible doubt that he wasn’t in his customary nightshirt. And then—ah, but then the action seemed speeded up enormously!

 

His eyes were wide now; he was growing sober by leaps and bounds. There was the undeviating crack above his head, and six inches to either side of it were identical cracks. The ceiling wasn’t composed of plaster at all, but painted boards; and the most staggering thing about it was the fact that, without even sitting up he could stretch out his hand and touch it! As a matter of fact, he wasn’t in any actual bed, but on a shelf underneath²⁰ a rough board cupboard.

 

And now, at last, he had reached the inevitable²¹ point of exclaiming: “Where am I?” and sent his leaden feet hurtling through space in the direction of the floor. He sat for a moment on the edge of the shelf, holding his vertiginous²² head in his hands and trying to steady himself to a facing of whatever ordeal²³ might be in store for him. One awful thought kept pounding against his feverish²⁴ temples: “Perhaps I’m in jail!” Mightn’t the cell of a jail conceivably look like this?

 

But when he came face to face with a tiny port, his almost entirely²⁵ cleared though still very painful brain registered the indisputable fact that he was at sea.

 

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 chilly   

adj.凉快的，寒冷的

参考例句：

• I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
• I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。

3 obstreperous   

adj.喧闹的，不守秩序的

参考例句：

• He becomes obstreperous when he's had a few drinks.他喝了些酒就爱撒酒疯。
• You know I have no intention of being awkward and obstreperous.你知道我无意存心作对。

4 futilely   

futile（无用的）的变形； 干

参考例句：

• Hitler, now ashen-gray, futilely strained at his chains. 希特勒这时面如死灰，无可奈何地死拽住身上的锁链不放。 来自名作英译部分
• Spinning futilely at first, the drivers of the engine at last caught the rails. 那机车的主动轮起先转了一阵也没有用处，可到底咬住了路轨啦。

5 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

6 hazy   

adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的

参考例句：

• We couldn't see far because it was so hazy.雾气蒙蒙妨碍了我们的视线。
• I have a hazy memory of those early years.对那些早先的岁月我有着朦胧的记忆。

7 sketchily   

adv.写生风格地，大略地

参考例句：

• Christoffel's major concern was to reconsider and amplify the theme already treated somewhat sketchily by Riemann. Christoffel主要关心的是重新考虑和详细论述Riemann已经稍为粗略地讨论过的题目。 来自辞典例句
• The dishes were only sketchily washed. 盘子仅仅是大致地洗了一下。 来自互联网

8 crimson   

n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色

参考例句：

• She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
• Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。

9 boisterous   

adj.喧闹的，欢闹的

参考例句：

• I don't condescend to boisterous displays of it.我并不屈就于它热热闹闹的外表。
• The children tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.孩子们经常是先静静地聚集在一起，不一会就开始吵吵嚷嚷戏耍开了。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 succumbed   

不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死

参考例句：

• The town succumbed after a short siege. 该城被围困不久即告失守。
• After an artillery bombardment lasting several days the town finally succumbed. 在持续炮轰数日后，该城终于屈服了。

12 persuasion   

n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派

参考例句：

• He decided to leave only after much persuasion.经过多方劝说，他才决定离开。
• After a lot of persuasion,she agreed to go.经过多次劝说后，她同意去了。

13 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

14 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

15 scruple   

n./v.顾忌，迟疑

参考例句：

• It'seemed to her now that she could marry him without the remnant of a scruple.她觉得现在她可以跟他成婚而不需要有任何顾忌。
• He makes no scruple to tell a lie.他说起谎来无所顾忌。

16 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

18 query   

n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑

参考例句：

• I query very much whether it is wise to act so hastily.我真怀疑如此操之过急地行动是否明智。
• They raised a query on his sincerity.他们对他是否真诚提出质疑。

19 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。

20 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

21 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

22 vertiginous   

adj.回旋的；引起头晕的

参考例句：

• House prices continued their vertiginous decline,with the US,UK,Spain and Ireland leading the way.房屋价格继续他们的旋转式下降，美国、英国、西班牙和爱尔兰引领着这个趋势。
• My small mind contained in earthly human limits,not lost in vertiginous space and elements unknown.我的狭隘思想局限在人类世俗之中，不会

23 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

24 feverish   

adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的

参考例句：

• He is too feverish to rest.他兴奋得安静不下来。
• They worked with feverish haste to finish the job.为了完成此事他们以狂热的速度工作着。

25 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。